I'm scared of Posey

[papa shuttlesworth]

I'm scared of James Posey.

I just don't know what to expect from him in the next few years.  I can imagine him staying with Boston for the next 4-5 years, continuing to defend and do the little things and aging with clutch grace, like a combination of Bowen and Horry.  Or I can see him doing the same thing for another team and possibly helping them win a lot of games.

But I also feel that he might be one of those guys that we are disappointed about not re-signing and then he goes to another team and just falls apart.  I can't think of any good examples right now, but sometimes the best deals/signings are the ones you don't make, the ones that make you say "Whew!  I'm glad we didn't get him".  Perhaps like A-Rod.

Posey also seems to oscillate in his career between awesome and non-interested.  I can see him being dead weight in a few years.

So basically Posey scares me.  There are just so many ways the next fews years can play out.  I am rarely this unsure about predicting a player's future (for better or worse), but Posey's future would paralyze me if I were a GM. 

[Cry Baby]

Choosing between two evils, I'd say re-sign him and take a gamble. We could always go for trades down the wire to improve... The Celtics gave up early in the past (i.e. Billups, Joe Johnson, Bowen etc.) Let's keep our price catch for a change... 

[TrueGreen]

You really can't be sure of any move that is made. The best we, as fans, can go on is past performance in a particular situation. Posey works well with this Celtic team and I don't see that changing. Basketball people, such as Danny Ainge, can see things in players that we don't see. All we as fans can do is throw in our 2 cents and rely on Danny's judgment.

[Frontierboy]

Things don't look good for us resigning Posey....... funny how no one is talking about the House situation either.......

[drza44]

One thing I learned from watching the Timberwolves flounder for the last decade is that this can be a no-win situation.  They had Chauncey Billups for cheap as a back-up right before he was ready to break out, but chose instead to stick with their vet starter (Brandon) and replace Chauncey with another cheap, unproven FA (Troy Hudson).  Then, after Hudson had a good playoff run (and still smarting from getting burned by Chauncey), the Wolves gave Hudson the long mid-level contract and it blew up in their face.  They offered similar deals to guys like Marko Jaric, Mike James, and Trenton Hassell and had it blow up in their faces when they proved to be back-up caliber more-so than starting caliber.  The contracts themselves, some of which seemed reasonable at the time, became albatrosses. 

My inclination would be to sign Posey for the good karma, and the fact that he seems to fit so well on this team.  But my mind looks at Minnesota's history, and the lesson there was that you only give these long mid-level contracts to starting caliber players with upside.  Posey isn't that.  So while I'll probably be happy if I hear that Posey has been re-signed by the Celtics, I couldn't at all fault the logic of not overspending on him in order to keep needed financial flexibility moving forward.  With the starting 5 locked up the foundation is good here for at least the next few years, and Posey is more of a luxury.  It is sound logic to not tie the team up financially for a luxury.

[papa shuttlesworth]

Yeah, but that's the Timberwolves!

[drza44]

Yeah, but that's the Timberwolves!

Lol, true.  But do you really want the Cs' signing practices to emulate those of a team that you can use as a punchline?

[Neurotic Guy]

You really can't be sure of any move that is made. The best we, as fans, can go on is past performance in a particular situation. Posey works well with this Celtic team and I don't see that changing. Basketball people, such as Danny Ainge, can see things in players that we don't see. All we as fans can do is throw in our 2 cents and rely on Danny's judgment.

Truer words have not been said.  Second-guessing is the stock and trade of fans and pundits, however, sometimes a bit unfair. 

After the KG trade I said that the trade was good no matter what happens -- though many would only allow the future to determine the value of the trade.  My feeling is that if you make what SHOULD be the right move and it doesn't work out, the move itself is still a good one, but you always risk for falling unfortunate victim to the tenuous stability of the human condition.  Anything can happen, so you just have to make the moves that seem worth the risk and hope that they play out for the best.  Many times GMs are skewered for 'bad' decisions when they merely suffered bad luck.

The fourth year is the big question mark regarding Posey.  This is where risk/reward begins to sway in the wrong direction.